Q: I’ve been following the current bodybuilding training trend of hitting each muscle once a week with lots of sets. Growth has been slow, but you’d think that with so much volume and intensity at one workout, it should take a full week for that muscle to completely recover, right?

Well, training each muscle with lots of volume once a week will produce some growth—if intensity is high enough to produce significant damage. The question is how much is enough?

Less volume for each muscle but with more frequent body part hits has proven a better, more sure-fire method for optimal hypertrophy in most cases and works as a sort of anabolic phasing… [Read more…]

Q: I’ve been using the Pure-Positions STX workout from the Stretch-Overload ebook. [Full-body workouts training one of the three positions for each muscle at each workout.] I’ve been growing better than ever, but I’m wondering if I should add an exercise for stubborn bodyparts. For example, while my arms have grown a quarter of an inch already (working great!), my shoulders still make it look like I have flat muscles. Doing just one delt exercise at each workout doesn’t seem to be cutting it. Suggestions?

A: Yes, you can add an exercise, but don’t get carried away or you’ll overtrain. Remember, you’re doing full-body workouts three times a week… [Read more…]